Lolly
Lolly, full name "Lauren", was Kate Connor's best friend from school who turned up one day unannounced at the Viaduct Bistro. Kate was delighted to see her after some years and caught up with her news, including the fact that she had broken up with her husband Tom after he had had a four-year affair with Louella Charnock, another old schoolfriend, despite Kate previously warning Lolly not to enter into a marriage with him. Lolly assumed that because she had moved out of the marital home her invitation to Kate and Rana Habeeb's wedding hadn't reached her, not realising that the couple had over-invited their guest numbers anyway. Kate texted Rana to meet her fiancee and Lolly heard about the mistakes with the extra numbers. She declared that there were several solutions to their problem and demonstrated the fact when she was introduced to fellow (and very unwanted) guests Kirk and Beth Sutherland. Talking to them aside from the happy couple, Lolly discovered that the Sutherlands were short of money and confided in them the fiction that Kate and Rana had produced a wedding present list where none of the items were under £100. To further put them off attending, she told Kirk that there were three predatory lesbians attending who would not take no for an answer and only fancied stunning blond women. Kirk instantly felt that his own wife would be in danger from such unwanted attentions. Lolly and Kate re-started their friendship from where it had taken off with Lolly bossing her around and starting to use her own discarded wedding plans as strongly-put suggestions to Kate as to how she should organise her own special day. Getting drunk on alcohol smuggled into Speed Daal while they dined, Kate was was unable to say "no" to lots of her friend's ideas, being overwhelmed when Lolly managed to book them the Chariot Square Hotel for free, but making Rana unnerved when she saw the force her personality was having on her fiancee. Starting to feel like a third wheel in the relationship, Rana expressed her concerns to ex-sister-in-law Alya Nazir who passed them on to Kate, but unfortunately in Lolly's hearing. Kate managed to negotiate the matter between Rana and Lolly, but Kate's old friend kept to herself her inner unhappiness and jealousy that she had in many ways moved on from her. Undeterred, Lolly went into organisational overdrive and demanded the happy couple drop their plans for a spa do for just the two of them prior to the wedding in favour of a full-on hen night, though the two women rejected her initial plan for going to a male strip club. An agreement was reached for the bistro as the venue, with men invited, but any idea of a drag queen was rejected. Rana's continuing idea was for things to be low-key but Lolly utterly rejected any consideration that that was what her old friend really wanted. Consequently, she turned up at their flat with her own supplies from her 16th June 2012 hen-do including pink headgear and feather boas and ideas for rude names for cocktails to be served, further antagonising Rana and also annoying Alya Nazir and Toyah Battersby with her bossy manner. The evening got off to a bad start when the women found out that a near-naked waiter and a stripper had indeed been booked, albeit the latter being a female one going by the stage name of "Apples". When Lolly sneered at Kate's choice of wedding dress, Rana had had enough and firmly told Lolly that it wasn't her wedding and to back off. The party decamped to the Rovers where Kate, still possessing fond feelings for her old friend, told her to just relax and enjoy herself. In what she thought was the safety of the pub toilet, Rana and Kate discussed the lady, with Kate revealing that she had been called "the Klingon" at school because of her needy nature, unaware she was sat in one of the cubicles, crying as she listened to their talk. Back in the public, she made her distress obvious making the two women feel guilty and forcing an apology from Rana and a confession from Lolly as to how desperately alone and unwanted she felt. This rare moment of honesty in Lolly made her move forward to a shocked Rana for a full-on kiss, saying she just wanted to know how it felt to be Kate. Pushed by Toyah, Rana persuaded Kate to un-invite her old friend from the wedding, but without giving the reason why. When Lolly was told, she exploded at Rana, accusing her of coming on to her. A bitter row broke out with Kate seeing Lolly's true character for the first time and telling her to get out of her life. As an act of spiteful revenge, Lolly gained access to their flat and tore holes in Rana's wedding dress which Beth Sutherland had to work many hours on through the night in the Underworld factory to fix. Lolly's act inadvertently lead to Rana's act as she entered the factory to collect the dress on the day that the roof collapsed and she died in the rubble as a result of her injuries. Lolly tried to attend her memorial service but was sent on her way by Kate with bitter words of recrimination. List of appearances 2019 Category:Coronation Street characters Category:2019 minor characters